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Many production folks, especially independent operators and those like me working in a small shop, wear many different hats. Allow me to elaborate: Baseball Hat I wear my team colors and logo as my primary hat. In other words, describing myself as an employee of my company, and representing the best interests of my employer in every activity, both interally and externally. A baseball hat also keeps the sun out of my eyes, but many hats do that. Cowboy Hat This is sometimes the hat that mavericks wear (keep those comments about you know who to yourself please). Cowboys ride horses, rustle cattle, herd sheep, carry six-shooters and sleep under the stars. In other words, cowboys are adventurers, even if the adventures are a regular part of their jobs. Perhaps we the non-cowboys consider the cowboy's job duties adventurous, whereas to the cowboy, it is just part of their job. Thus, when I wear my cowboy hat (these are figurative hats for the non-figurative-thinking out there) I am doing my regular job duties that seem cool and interesting to others. For example, standing in an OR for 12 hours shooting some cutting edge procedure, or unloading many heavy cases of gear from the luggage carousel at an airport, or doing AV support at a conference that happens to be in Jackson Hole or Vegas. Indeed, these activities get a lot of attention at cookouts and pass the time with old ladies on airplanes. Hard Hat This one should be obvious. People who both do manual labor (digging ditches, installing underground pipes (for the internet of course) as well as people who work in dangerous areas (factories, landmine fields, shipyards). Thus I wear my hard hat (figurative) when doing challenging work in which I need to protect my noggin. For example, doing an instructional design treatment for a CME activity (really painful on the brain), working from midnight to 6am to setup three cameras for a live to tape with live open captioning event after waiting patiently in the bar across the street for Peggy Sue and her new husband to vacate the premises, or working on a video when the only client input was "we want a video, you know, with lots of wipes and flying boxes" and trying to give them what they want (in this case, the hard hat keeps me from pulling my hair out, what's left of it). I'm running out of clever metaphors, so I'll just list some of the other roles I play: Producer (beret?) Sometimes a project requires me to wear every type of hat, beginning with Producer. Setup interviews, develop interview questions, deal with public affairs and fight pushback, help clients develop their ideas and scripts and when on location, deal with the various local contacts. Shooter/Videographer/Camera Operator - so many words for this (intercom headset - this is like a hat) This is not always obvious, and sometimes I am wearing several hats at once, not always easy). For example, I may be meeting with a client to develop a script, when suddenly we come up with some shots we could get, if only there were a camera crew available. I go to my car and retrieve the camera, sticks and lights I packed, just in case, and put on the videographer's hat (probably not a headset, although I do hear voices sometimes). Other times this is a pure shooting task, such as shooting a surgery or other event. Creative Director (fedora? I'm thinking Don Draper, not Indiana Jones) This is another hat that I always have in my bag of tricks. Sometimes this hat is the primary skull covering, such as when having a kickoff meeting with a new client, and coming up with ideas, based upon the stimulus "we want to do something new" so I call upon both new ideas, things I see in other mediums (media?) and of course incarnations of previously successful ideas. You not only need to think on your feet, but also outside the box. Although depending upon your client or audience, well within the box. And when dealing with creatives from other organizations, such as agencies, clients or other contractors working on the same project, your need to flip flop between the fedora and the local ceremonial head-dress, and be a diplomat. Indeed knowing when, how and how much politics (diplomacy, not the ways of elected officials) to employ is a nuance of managing clients. Manage expectations. Editor (winter cap? not with the fuzzy ball on top, I'm think more like the Edge) As editor, I may be cutting a video to a script, cutting a surgery where the script is the last piece of the puzzle, editing a text document for content, copy-editing or proofreading or a combination of all of these. In any of these applications of the term "editor" let us not forget our responsibility to the audience, and to the authors. Let me explain. If editing surgery, for example, goal number one is to cut out the unneccessary motions while maintaining the structure of the procedure, since the intention is to present a 3 hour operation in 15 minutes without leaving anything out. But another goal in this cutting process is to make the surgeon look polished. It is obvious to edit out a sequence where there is unintentional bleeding or where a needle slips out of the needle holder(whiffs). But there are more subtle edits to make, nuances of surgical technique that may be lost on the average viewer, but to our audience of above average surgeons, little nuances go a long way.You also need to edit while shooting, or think of editing while shooting. I once had a surgeon remove a tumor twice, because the first shot didn't look right. You need a good rapport with someone to make that happen. If editing a documentary-style video with lots of interviews, conducted by one's self, one needs to select the..er..selects which illustrate the points we are trying to make, while portraying the interviewees in a flattering light. So my friends (ok, I have been watching too much politics) this concludes my discussion on the wearing of many hats in the course of one's job. Mastering the balance among the different roles, indeed delegating taks to the different portions of your own person, takes many years to master. Yet this challenge makes for a unque job, where every day is different, and keeps you (me) coming back for more. Thanks for reading. Mike Cohen | |
